Calling all volunteers, we are having a work day on Saturday

This Saturday we are working on as many things as we can at the farm starting at 1pm. The Language garden preschool is working on the front beds. We have group of girl scouts coming to harvest for the food bank and YOU are coming too, aren’t you??.?.

Well even if you can’t, stop by anytime and see how much we are growing!

Weekly update …and only 8 spring CSA shares remain!

Man, the weather reports have not been accurate this week! We haven’t been able to do much outside other than spread compost. As soon as the ground dries we will resume our work on the garden beds.

We are excited to have the green house filling up more and more everyday. We are getting a ton of help from the congregation and community volunteers. So far we have seeded, broccoli, kohlrabi, fennel, chard, buttercrunch lettuce, napa cabbage, savoy cabbage, spinach and a few more goodies.

If you haven’t signed up for our CSA yet, you better hurry. Spots are closing fast. We only have 8 full shares left for spring season!!! That is really exciting.

Greenhouse update

The greenhouse has officially gotten green. The first broccoli popped out today. In addition to that, we also have seeded cabbage, fennel, romaine, chard, and we have many more to come.

We are heating the greenhouse with 100% passive solar heat! (that means no electricity!)

You can see our seed trays resting on barrels filled with water. The water in the barrels helps keep the seeds warmer at night when temperatures drop.

We are also watering from a watering table. The seed trays “wick” water from the bottom. This method saves water and nutrients and gives us more control of the water temperature that we are germinating and nourishing with.

CSA’s are still 10% off until Feb 1!

This year we are dedicating the entire front of the property to a communal church garden with rows for the hungry. We are also offering work opportunity to local youth, growing better veggies and giving thanks.

1 bed down…10 to go

The warm weather this week allowed us to get started reshaping our beds for the upcoming season. Essentially we are breaking everything down and rebuilding it in wider/taller beds. It is a lot of work, but it will make the farm much more manageable in the coming months. Here is Bremen raking the seed beds to prepare them for planting.

Here is a look at the first completed bed. It’s all nice and tucked in with leaf mulch and waiting on spring.

Now I have to complete my homework…SEED trays. We germinate all of the plants we grow ourselves… No starter plugs on this farm!

2012 CSA registration form

Just a quick revision to the agreement. I was looking over the form and noticed that there was no discount to full Season shareholders. This was a typo. Please note that our Full Season share is $800. The 1/2 season is $400. If you pay in full for your share before February 1, 2012 you will also receive a 10% discount off of that price.

CSA members will also receive discounts on classes, workshops, and even farm camps this summer. Thanks for supporting our work!

Oakleaf Mennonite Farm 2012 CSA

Happy New Year

Happy New Year from the crew at Oakleaf Mennonite Farm. Work has begun again on the farm. The days are getting longer and spring is around the corner.

Over the holiday we had some great help from DOOR Atlanta and St. Paul’s UCC They helped us spread out 3 massive compost piles and straighten our leaf mulch pile. They literally finished 2 days worth or work in a couple hours. We are extremely grateful for their help. It is always fun to work with such an enthusiastic group.

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Over New Year, our family went to the beach. As always, we visited the local community garden to see what they had growing. Would you believe they still had tomatoes and peppers? They also had this awesome greenhouse made from discarded 2 liter bottles. I would love to build one, so I am putting out the call. Please bring me your discarded 2 liter bottles and we’ll put one of these up at the farm.

This year we are planting rows for the hungry, developing work opportunities for neighborhood youth, and continuing to grow/shape the farm. We can always use volunteers, recycled plastic bags and cardboard boxes. Thanks and Happy New Year!

More black gold arrives!

Today we got 4 more loads of black gold for the farm. That brings the total so far to 8 loads we probably have about 8 more loads to go.
We are composting the sweet potato bed the green bean bed the carrot bed and asian green bed.
If anybody has some spare time and would like to volunteer shoveling the stuff out please let me know. We don’t have many vegetables left for you to take home but we do have some sweet potatoes and you’re welcome to bring home a bag of compost as well.

Greenhouse is up!

Why did we wait til the windiest day to put up the greenhouse? Who knows?

Anyway, after almost flying off with the plastic a few times we finally got it clamped down.

Here is a pic of the inside after we did a little reorganizing.

2012 CSA registration

We are very excited to begin registration for our 2012 CSA.  I pulled this simple definition of a CSA from the USDA website as defined by Susan Demuth.

In basic terms, CSA consists of a community of individuals who pledge support to a farm operation so that the farmland becomes, either legally or spiritually, the community’s farm, with the growers and consumers providing mutual support and sharing the risks and benefits of food production. Typically, members or “share-holders” of the farm or garden pledge in advance to cover the anticipated costs of the farm operation and farmer’s salary. In return, they receive shares in the farm’s bounty throughout the growing season, as well as satisfaction gained from reconnecting to the land and participating directly in food production. Members also share in the risks of farming, including poor harvests due to unfavorable weather or pests. By direct sales to community members, who have provided the farmer with working capital in advance, growers receive better prices for their crops, gain some financial security, and are relieved of much of the burden of marketing.

We have big plans for 2012. These plans include adding a community garden with rows for the hungry, offering work opportunities to local youth and nourishing the land on which we grow.

We are offering a 10% discount on all memberships PAID by February 1, 2012. Thanks for your support!

Click on link below to download our member Agreement.

Oakleaf Mennonite Farm 2012 CSA

Winter chores

This morning when I got to the farm, the goats had started work without me. They had already begun clearing the last of our green beans and soybeans.

Check out Larry in the front. He is doing his best to return the soybeans to the soil as quickly as possible.

After fooling around with the stooges, I put a little row cover over some collards, kale and arugula.